Of Devils and Angels
by xxTeam-Masterxx
Summary: DCI Jim Keats spells trouble for CID, not least for DSI Thomas who finds herself in a world that she believed a myth, where she is irrevocably bound to Keats. Stuck between her attachment to Jim and her loyalty to Gene, Grace has tough choices to make.AU


**Hey, for those of you who have read The Devil's Advocate, I'm really sorry for not updating in like ages, but I have no inspiration for it at the minute, sorry again. And to those who haven't read it you don't really need to, as this is completely different i.e T.D.A has my boy Sam Tyler in it, this more or less follows the original ashes theme that my poor Sammy is dead **** all you really need to know is that Grace Thomas is a Durham born copper, who moved to Newcastle when she was 10, she went to university in Durham where she studied Law, disappointing her parents when she chose to be a police officer rather than a high flying barrister, she has had a rather controversial career in the force (I was getting to that in TDA), she first met Gene when she was a DI in Newcastle, and transferred to GMP shortly before Sam's death (in this story anyway), she was promoted to DCI prior to this and took Gene's place when he transferred south. After the Douglas lane job, she was brought in as acting DSI, but eventually was promoted while Gene was in Spain. She was given the place at Fenchurch East, and this story starts a few months after that. Sorry for the long winded ramble :D I hope you enjoy it.**

_When you try your best, but you don't succeed. When you get what you want, but not what you need. When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep. Stuck in reverse_

And the tears come streaming down your face. When you lose something you can't replace. When you love someone, but it goes to waste. Could it be worse?

_Lights will guide you home. And ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you_

And high up above or down below. When you're too in love to let it go. But if you never try you'll never know, just what you're worth. Coldplay-Fix You

Grace sat at her desk, signing her name for what must have been the thousandth time that day, if she had known that a promotion meant even more paperwork she would not have hesitated to tell the board where to stick the new job title. Unfortunately she had been a little naive about it and had joyously accepted; being the first female Detective Superintendant the police force had seen had made her a little overexcited. Now however she regretted it and she would snap her old job back in an instant, she barely saw action now and she was turning into the pen pushers that she'd hated as a DCI. A harsh knock at the door made her head snap up, her hand freezing mid signature as she gladly shouted for her saviour to come in. Her breath caught in her throat as a tall bespectacled man walked into the room, he had a dark aura of dominance and arrogance that she immediately disliked, something about him just didn't feel right, but at the same time, seemed to calm her in ways she hadn't felt before. She stood carefully, watching his every move closely.

"Sorry to interrupt, DCI Jim Keats, Discipline and Complaints" he said holding his hand out to her warily, he seemed to be as cautious of her as she was of him, his eyes scrutinising her as she slowly grasped his hand. Jumping in shock at how warm he seemed her eyes narrowed at him, his hand felt as though it was burning through her skin, but it fit hers so perfectly. Unnerved she shook it quickly and pulled her hand away, clasping it behind her back to try and cool it down. He seemed shaken as he rubbed his hands together, as if her handshake had chilled him to the bone.

Finding her voice and begging it wouldn't come out as a fearful squeak she answered him "Pleased to meet you, Detective Superintendant Grace Thomas, what is D and C doing here? If you don't mind me asking"

Jim gave her a sweet smile, "You should have the memo"

Grace furrowed her brow, and scratted through the mess of papers that littered her desk, embarrassed she tried to tidy them up a bit, flushing as she felt his gaze bore into her neck. Looking up at him sheepishly she tried to explain herself "It doesn't appear to be here, you know what it's like, new job, all that paperwork, but I'll check down the sofa" she grinned, trying to lighten the atmosphere that was choking her. To her relief he chuckled fondly, a mischievous glint in his eyes as his worried gaze became one of intrigue, sitting down on one of the many chairs that had found themselves in front of her desk.

"It's not a problem, I know the feeling" he grinned back, relaxing Grace that little bit more, enough that she quickly relinquished her new found height advantage. "I'm here to investigate the shooting of DI Alex Drake, by DCI Gene Hunt, who so I've been told is in Spain"

Grace groaned, rubbing the back of her neck in nervousness "Oh that's raised its ugly head again has it?"

"'Fraid so"

"There has already been an inquest into the shooting, are you here to lower the axe on this department? I'd rather you tell me now if you are" Grace demanded, brow furrowing once more as she levelled her gaze at him.

"Not yet, that's subject to review I'm afraid"

"That's alright by me, now if that's all?"

"Just letting you know that D and C are conducting their own inquiry, just to clarify a few things, so I'll need to interview you at some point Ma'am" Jim smiled

Grimacing at the mark of respect she countered "Please don't call me Ma'am, it makes me feel old, but thanks for the forewarning, I'll prepare my answers shall I?"

"I do believe that's cheating" he laughed slipping comfortably into flirting with her, even though all his senses where ringing in alarm of who and what she was, even if she didn't realise it yet.

Grace laughed along with him "So it is, I'll have to watch out for that, I don't want to be standing in front of a review board earlier than expected"

"No we couldn't have that could we?"

"I should bloody hope not, that would be a lovely black dot on my record"

"You never know, by the time I'm gone you might be able to do a dot to dot on your record"

Grace burst out laughing, the ease of conversation with Jim seemed to have appeared from nowhere, even the new found weight of her engagement ring nestled around her neck didn't seem to stop her flirting with him, it felt like it was burning through her chest, acting as a painful reminder of Luke's death. But she found herself both attracted to and very wary of Jim, a mix of emotions were clouding her judgement so much that she couldn't possibly begin to explain why she was still laughing uncontrollably and angling her hips towards the man that was virtually a stranger to her. Another knock on her door stopped her laughing fit, though she continued to giggle as she welcomed in Ray, who tilted his head slightly in confusion.

"Guv you alright?" Ray asked, concerned, before noticing the man trying to muffle his laughter as much as he could. "Sorry, am I interrupting?"

"No not at all, Ray this is DCI Jim Keats from D and C, he is investigating the Alex Drake shooting, Jim this is DI Ray Carling" Grace explained gesturing to Jim and Ray as she introduced them.

Ray gave a quick nod of his head at Jim, before quickly turning back to Grace "We need you Guv, there's been a kidnapping, young girl Dorothy Blond, taken 'bout an hour ago, and we need your 'elp, I wouldn't ask if it weren't you know, important"

"This wouldn't involve copious amounts of paper work would it?"

"We don't copy paperwork" Ray said, looking at Grace as though she had spoken a foreign language

"I mean lots Ray"

"Oh, I dunno" Ray answered with a noncommittal shrug "Sorry to barge in"

"No it's fine, I'll be there as soon as I can ok" Grace smiled as she ushered Ray out with her hand, before groaning deeply, her first case outside of this claustrophobic office was to investigate a kidnap, wonderful. "Jim I'm so so sorry about this" she apologised as she stood, grabbing her coat from the stand and shrugging it carelessly over her shoulders.

"No, I understand completely" holding his hands up in mock surrender as he smirked at her bustling around her office, hearing the mumbled warrant card mantra as she grappled with piles of files that were on her desk. "You need a hand?"

Grace turned to him and gave a vague nod "Yeah if you would, that pile there needs to see the commissioner, and they need to be given to Viv the desk sergeant, they're the new uniform rotas" pointing to the neat piles of files, a complete contrast to the chaos of papers that littered the rest of her desk. But amid her bustling of papers, a small leather object became visible, to which Grace's eyes spotted immediately, "There you are you little bastard" she announced triumphantly as she grabbed it and shoved it in her coat pocket, glancing up when she heard Jim's snigger.

"Lose it often do you?"

"No it hides" Grace grins as she shuffles her way around her desk to open the door, holding it as Jim walks past into the corridor a stack of files precariously balanced in his arms. "I'd shake your hand but..." she lets her sentence trail off, nodding her head towards the files that he has.

"S'fine, It was nice to meet you Detective Superintendant"

"Grace, please, and it was nice to meet you Chief Inspector" giving him a wink as she sprints off down the corridor, bellowing at the top of her voice for Ray, who was just about to leave the police building, to hold the door for her.

Jolted awake by the shrill ringing of her office phone, Grace groggily raised her heavy head from its resting place in her arms, blinking a few times to try and adjust her eyes to the bright light of her office, she reached blindly for the phone. Hand connecting with the receiver, she made a half hearted attempt to pick it up. Bringing it to her ear she mumbled sleepily "Detective Superintendant Thomas" her customary phone greeting, which still sounded foreign as it rolled off her tongue.

"Grace, it's Drew" hearing her brothers voice on the other end of the line was what made her snap up straight, effectively giving her a mental slap to aid the process of her waking.

"Drew, hey, it's been a long time"

"Yeah, what are you doing at work at this time?"

Grace chewed her lip in puzzlement, "What time is it?"

"It's just gone 10"

"At night?"

"No in the morning, yes at night Grace!"

She sighed heavily, not realising she had slept that long, it had been a tiring day, investigating the Dorothy Blond case, on top of mountains of overdue paperwork and visiting a still comatose Alex in hospital. "Sorry, it's been a long day"

"Listen, I have something to tell you"

"Shoot"

"It's mum and dad"

Grace stiffened, her coppers instinct told her to expect bad news, she should react sorrowfully, but if the worst was the case, then it wasn't the worst for her, her feelings toward her parents were less than savoury, over the years the resentment had grown into mutual hatred. "What about them" she couldn't help but snap.

"They're dead Grace, they died in a car accident a few weeks back"

She obviously wasn't prepared for the shock because the smallest of sobs escaped the confines of her body, and a lone tear trickled it's way down her cheek. Shock was quickly replaced by curious anger, if they died a few weeks ago, then why was she only just informed? She was their only daughter after all, she had every right to know "And you only just thought to tell me did you? Lackadaisical till the end Drew"

"No Grace" his voice was stern and hard "They didn't want you to know until after their funeral, it said so in their will, and it also said not to expect anything from them. This also means my duty is over"

Confusion and desperate anger overtook her "What do you mean your duty?" she snarled at him

"I don't need to watch your back anymore, you are on your own Grace, and you always have been. The biggest disappointment ever to come from this family, they hated you, they all did, even I do, so that's us done. I don't want to see or hear from you again do you understand, you'll never see Sophie again, I'll just tell her you're dead or something. Bye" and the phone clicked, the dead tone ringing in her ears in the midst of what she had just heard.

Shakily she set the handset back down, before in a fit of anger ripping out the phone and throwing it across the room, watching as it smashes against the wall. Placing her hand on her desk, in one quick violent swipe most everything is on the floor, save for the computer, they wouldn't like that very much, destroying the phone was bad enough. She felt the tears coming quick and fast as she slumped against the wall, amidst the mess of papers that now littered her office floor. She had always thought Drew was the only member of her family she could rely on, the one who had been there throughout everything, the time she had appendicitis when she was 14 and was rushed to hospital so that they could remove her appendix, when Luke died. And what of Sophie, her niece, telling Sophie that she was dead would crush the five year old, on top of the death of her grandparents. Somewhere in the distance she heard her door open, half expecting to hear a recriminating lecture from the commissioner on improper police behaviour. Not even flicking her eyes up to look at the intruder, she grabbed her knees and pulled them further into her body and burying her head, hiding her tear stained face. Instead of a lecture, she felt a pair of warm arms work their way around her shoulders and pull her close, gently rubbing the tension from her muscles, taking no regard for the identity of this person, she flung her arms around them and buried her face in the crook of their neck. Allowing herself a slow smile as the scent of old spice invaded her nostrils, clinging to them much the same as she was clinging to this person, her unintentional saviour. She let herself hold this person, and be held in return, it had been so long that she had forgotten what it felt like, shedding the last of her tears; she pushed herself out of the comforting embrace to take a look at her intruder. She tried to hide her shock as she saw Jim Keats before her, his embrace hadn't felt uncomfortably warm as his handshake had, it had felt warm and welcoming, almost as if she belonged there. Attempting a smile, she wiped her eyes slowly, realising that there was no need to cover up the fact that she had been crying.

"Grace, what's wrong" he asked softly, cupping the side of her face with his hand, to which she leaned into, closing her eyes blissfully for a fraction of a second too long.

"Family stuff, it's fine honest" she muttered

"It doesn't look fine, tell me, I might be able to help"

"I doubt it" and with that she told him everything, her tumultuous upbringing, Luke, Sophie, Drew, her parents death, the refusal to have anything to do with her, her shaky path to DSI, and her sometimes fiery working relationship with Gene. Jim sat patiently and listened to it all, holding her as she cried, and reassuring her when her confidence in her previous actions wavered. As she finished she noticed that his eyes were burning with undisclosed anger at her late parents, and when he told her that her parents would get their comeuppance, she believed him completely, something in the way he said it, the conviction in his voice was almost as if he were certain of their fate.

"Right come on, let's get you home"

"I can't, I have to sort this mess out" she said, gesturing to her paper covered floor

"You can do it tomorrow, come on" he urged as he took her hand and pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arm reassuringly around her shoulders again, as he lead her out of the building.

Grace sobered as she hit the cool night air, realisation dawning on her that she now had no family to speak of. She was alone, but then again, as Drew had said, really she always had been, she just never noticed. Jim's guiding arm was keeping her anchored firmly in the present as she tried to stop dwelling on her past. Instead of taking her to her car, he lead her out onto the main street and proceeded to walk down it.

"Where are we going?" she asked curiously as it dawned on her that her flat was in the opposite direction.

"My place, I don't think you should be alone tonight"

"You haven't even bought me a drink yet" Grace replied jokingly, allowing a giggle as she watched him blush in the dim street light

"I-I-I Didn't mean..." he stammered nervously, arm subconsciously slackening its hold on her shoulders

"I know, I'm just messing with you" she grinned, a real true grin. Relief washing over her as pain started to ebb away from her, its smoky tendrils releasing her slowly from its clutches. Her grin broadened when she felt his arm reaffirming its previous hold around her shoulders.

His flat wasn't at all how she had imagined it, she had seen a small pokey place, just big enough to move around in without feeling cramped, but could no way accommodate two fully grown adults. In fact it was in every way a contradiction to what she had thought, it was bright and spacious, a mixture of modern furniture and antiquities, with its white walls and a splash of colour here and there, and odd bits of paperwork lay around the flat. She simply stood in the middle of his living room and gawped, rather unattractively.

"What?" he asked, laughter evident in his voice as he moved in and out of the bedroom, so that it was a decent state for her to sleep in.

"Just, not what I expected that's all" she gasped

"What were you expecting?" Jim questioned, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips "Some dingy little place that you could barely breathe in?"

"Sort of yeah"

"What do you take me for?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you" she smiled "What are you doing?"

"Preparing the bedroom for you"

Grace raised an eyebrow and Jim blushed again, in that instant she decided that she needed to make him blush more often, it was adorable.

"N-Not like that!"

"Jim, I know" she smiled, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder "Anyway, I can't take your bed, I'll have the couch honest. Really I feel awful, I've known you less than 24 hours and I'm already thieving your bed"

"No I insist, you've had a rough day, you deserve the bed"

"Oh so it's on a reward basis huh?" Grace smirked as the pink tinge once again returned to his cheeks "Besides, you might have had a bad day too"

"Trust me, I haven't, just take the bed please"

"Fine" she sighed "There's just no pleasing some people" she grumbled as she trudged to what she assumed was his bedroom.

"Other door" Jim called to her as she started to open up the bathroom

Grace went red and called back "I knew that" hurriedly changing direction and entering the bedroom to stop further embarrassment. Jim barely had time to settle himself on the couch before he heard her voice again "Jim, can I borrow one of your shirts to sleep in please?"

Breath caught in his throat and he rasped out a yes, telling her exactly where she could find some old ones. The muffled thank you told him she had found one suitable, and he made a mental note to wear that shirt one day. As he finally settled himself on the couch after switching off all the lights and fixing his blanket another shout was heard from his room. "Thanks Jim, for everything"

"It's no problem Grace, good night"

"Nighty night" were the last words he heard from her that night...

**Ok so please review, I don't know if I should continue it. Just let me know, I hope you enjoyed it, I know it's quite Grace-centric at the moment, but if I do continue the other characters in the series will appear as I'm planning to follow it sort of, with I few in betweeney bits and some small cases and the like.**

**Thanks for reading xx**

**xxTeam-Masterxx**


End file.
